AirlinesAir France-KLM Accelerates Airbus A380 Retirements Air France-KLM will retire its fleet of Airbus A380s, ending any uncertainty over the superjumbo’s return to service following the Covid-19 crisis, the group said Wednesday. Initially scheduled by the end of 2022, the airline's accelerated retirement of the A380 fleet marks the latest blow for the Airbus superjumbo’s prospects at a time the four-engine jet has already fallen out of favor among several operators due to its challenging economics.
LinkJetBlue Will Guarantee Social Distancing Until July As airlines and the aviation industry struggle with the best measures to safeguard crew and passengers, JetBlue released further guidance on its plans on May 20th. Top amongst these is a commitment to guarantee social distancing on its flights. Adjacent seats to passengers will be blocked on all flights until July 6th.
LinkSouth African Airways Given 25 Days To Plan Turnaround The future of South African Airways got a bit of a shakeup on 15th May, when the government requested a business plan for the airline within 25 days. Plans to rescue the airline have been ongoing since late 2019 and, even allowing for the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, the government is not satisfied with progress.
LinkCzech Smartwings Eyes Aid Without Giving Government A Stake Smartwings, the Czech low-cost airline, and owner of flag carrier Czech Airlines, announced this week that it does not want to be taken over by the Czech Republic as a way of being supported through the COVID-19 crisis. Instead, Smartwings wants state-backed guarantees to help cover its losses resulting from a full fleet grounding that lasted a month and a half.
LinkFinnair Considers More Prolonged Layoffs Finnair has announced that it will begin talks with employees over potential long-term layoffs. The airline has said it expects it will not be operating at full capacity before the end of this year and that it will have to reflect this in its workforce. Talks are due to begin on May 25th.
LinkQatar Airways Return Airbus A350s Leased From LATAM As part of its drastic fleet reductions, Qatar Airways is returning four A350 aircraft leased from Latin American carrier LATAM. The homecoming operation is reportedly well underway, with the four aircraft pretty much traveling in convoy across the Atlantic. They are expected to arrive between 05:30 and 07:00 at Confins Airport in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, on Thursday.
LinkLOT Polish Airlines Announces June Domestic Flight Resumption LOT Polish Airlines has announced that domestic flights will resume on June 1st. The Polish carrier initially suspended flights for two weeks from March 15th as a result of a government lockdown.
LinkAir New Zealand To Cut 1,300 Cabin Crew Positions New Zealand’s national flag carrier, Air New Zealand, has told over 1,300 of its cabin crew that they will lose their jobs. The announcement was made today by the organization representing the flight attendants union E tū. It follows on from Air New Zealand saying back in March that it would cut staffing levels by 30%.
LinkIndian Government Looks To Fix Flight Prices To Aid Recovery In a move to protect passengers from exorbitant ticket prices and airlines from predatory pricing from competitors, the Indian Government is planning for post-lockdown airfare regulations.
LinkRyanair Plans 300+ British Pilot Redundancies Ryanair is planning to make 336 British pilots redundant, according to the British Airlines Pilots Association (BALPA). The union is furious that the Irish airline is holding onto substantial cash reserves in addition to recently accepting $730 million in government funding.
LinkMalaysia Airlines Is Finding Success With Its Airbus A380: For Cargo With the demand for passenger travel in steep decline, Malaysia Airlines is thinking outside the box to keep some of its planes in the air and workers working. Malaysia is one of the world’s biggest producers of personal protective equipment (PPE), and Malaysia Airlines is starting to carve out a niche for itself, operating flights to deliver the highly sought after products.
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